This invention relates to knitted garments and more particularly to the forming and handling of gussets or crotch pieces in which two knitted stocking blanks are combined with a gusset insert to provide a panty hose.
The patent to Cecil R. Bell, Jr. et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,188,898, discloses a machine for attaching gussets to hosiery blanks wherein a cutting device severs gusset inserts from a gusset material supply and the severed inserts are placed in clamps prior to being sewn to slit hosiery blanks.
The patent to Osho Takatori, U.S. Pat. No. 4,267,785, also shows an apparatus somewhat similar to that of U.S. Pat. No. 4,188,898 but having an insert cutting and transferring device somewhat different therefrom.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,122,555 discloses the formation of a crotch insert by diagonally cutting a relatively narrow strip of fabric having selvage edges to form a diamond-shaped crotch insert. The wales are parallel with the selvage edges, and the diagonal lines of cut are at an angle of approximately 50.degree. from the selvage edges.
The present invention relates to a new and improved system for forming gussets by cutting the gusset material in a prescribed manner and for presenting gussets to clamps in which they are held as they are sewn to hosiery blanks. The invention may be employed with machines of the type disclosed in above-mentioned U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,188,989 and 4,267,785, and reference may be made to the patents, if needed, for details of the clamps, sewing devices, hosiery blanks conveying apparatus, etc.
In the past, one method of producing gusset fabric consists of knitting tubular fabric, slitting the tubular fabric to open width, rolling the width of fabric into an elongated roll, and subsequently slitting the elongated roll into a series of narrow rolls, each having a width approximating the width or length of a gusset. In an effort to eliminate waste of the fabric, particularly at the ends of the open width rolls, the tubular knit fabric was cut on a spiral. However, this resulted in the wales of the gusset fabric being at an angle when sewn into the panty hose. It is significant to maintain the wales of a gusset insert running from leg to leg when the hosiery blanks and gusset are sewn together.
With the foregoing in mind, it is an object of the present invention to form diamond-shaped gussets from tubular fabric by cutting the fabric along a preselected bias angle such that the wales in each gusset insert run from leg to leg of a panty hose garment after the garment is sewn.
Another object of the invention is the provision of a new and improved system for presenting a gusset to a pair of hosiery blanks for subsequent sewing into a panty hose garment.
Other features and advantages of the invention will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art during the course of the following description of the invention.